Now that the event is over, here are some of the most important steps I'm taking in my business…
I just finished OfferMind 2019, and it was incredible.
Now, that might sound weird 'cause it was my event’ but the reality is - it was REALLY good.
And as Sales Funnel Radio is all about documenting the journey, I want to...
OFFERMIND - THE RECAP
At the time of me creating this episode, Offermind was a week ago, and ‘Oh, my gosh,’ the event was...
This year OfferMind was 650 people, by contrast, at the first event last year, we had 140 -150 people show up.
The event was super cool. However...
The only problem is that most of the tickets were free.
In fact, they largely were free; people got them as bonuses for buying other offers…
And that's okay, but the downside is…
It pre-frames the brain for FREE stuff, so when you go to sell, it's just harder.
The #FACT is:
It's a little bit more challenging to pitch a ‘FREE’ room.
Now, I understand everybody is in a different scenario in their life and I'm not making fun of that at all, but that's just the reality.
If it's a completely free event it's very different than if people just pay just a little bit.
OFFERMIND 2019 - FILLING THE EVENT
Filling events is hard!
I kept track and we created 15 separate campaigns + 1 Ad Campaign
Which means it was 16 Campaigns that I ran in order to fill this year’s OfferMind.
That was *HARD*
In fact...
Running campaigns to fill the event was as hard as the event itself, if not harder.
I always wanna do awesome and over-deliver for the people who come to my events, but it’s very challenging to do that...
We had an awesome group of volunteers who are our social agents from my groups, and they volunteered to help set up a few things.
(The AWESOME volunteers… *Bonus Points* if you can spot me 😉)
We had an amazing company come and run registration for us - that's all they do at events.
OfferMind cost about a quarter-million bucks for me to put on.
AV is very expensive and Swag was 50 grand alone.
And I know I just did an episode about this, but I thought I'd just recap to show you my next steps…
THE FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB SELLING OFFERLAB
Most people don't know what OfferLab is yet.
...‘cause, like the First Rule of Fight Club: Don’t talk about Fight Club, right? 😉
OfferLab is pretty ridiculous and it’s NEVER been offered before - by ANYONE!
So we sold OfferLab at the event and we had this really cool thing created.
It was a packet with A LOT of cool stuff in it…
However, I'm NOT gonna tell you about the offer right now 'cause I wanna share it with you another time.
BUT… (and this is sooo cool!)...
I had a stage rush.
… and that says something.
I spent five days creating the pitch.
Before that, there was the ‘brainstorming’ and all these other things, but when I finally landed on it...
I was like, “This is it! I’ve hit it! This offer is freaking sexy!”
From stage, we counted $1.9 million in sales.
MY FIRST STAGE RUSH
Here’s what happend…
I was pitching and showing more about what the program was worth and I hadn't even gotten to the price yet, and a guy stood up...
I still remember it!
Stage left, on the front, this guy stood up and started shimmying through everybody else to grab a form at the front of the room.
There were tables at the front of the room, and this guy went and slapped his credit card down before I even said the price or did a price drop.
It was so honoring.
Then it was like a waterfall that started slowly…
I think I spoke for an additional 10, 15 minutes while everyone got up...
I'd never had that experience before, it was so cool.
Brandan Fisher, (he created FishDawg Productions), is one of my good friends, he's also a guy that does a lot of filming for me and for Russell’s programs…
He’s a very talented guy, who’s been around this world like crazy.
Afterward, Brandan sent me a message and he's like:
"Dude, I've never seen anyone besides Russell actually do a legitimate stage rush. Huge congrats to you."
And I was like, "That's so cool of you to say, man. Oh my gosh."
I was freaking out…
It was so cool to have a stage rush.
WHERE I’M AT NOW…
It is exhausting being the speaker on stage, let alone putting the event together.
Now, I had help, a lot of help…
Austin and Colton killed it while we were selling OfferLab.
...it was tons of fun.
But for three of us to pull off a 650 tickets event - that’s NOT normal.
And we suffered because of it!
I'd have no desire to go through that again, it was physically painful.
I mean that in all reality.
The event was in Boise and I always stay at the hotel that I'm speaking at... 'cause I need to stay in the game.
After day one, I went back to my hotel room…
I'll just tell you right now, I was in a lot of pain… and the type of headache that comes from something like that is pretty big.
And what I always do, especially when something is that intense, is grab the hotel towels and ice, then lay them out on either the floor or the bed…
… and then I wrap my legs in ice till they're completely numb.
You gotta get enough ice so that it doesn't melt - it sticks to your skin and stuff.
So I totally iced my legs and numbed them out.
I've had some people reach out, and ask, "Well, Steven, why do you do it then?"
What are you talking about? Do you know how many lives I that just helped?
.. whether they bought my program or not (which I think everybody should)! 😉
You might laugh, like, "Well, of course, you would say that."
Okay, but seriously though, whether or not they bought, that was one baller event.
I mean, my gosh, the raving reviews.
I saw one negative review, and it's because we didn't have the piggy banks there.
I was supposed to give piggy banks out 'cause it was part of the offer.
TURNING A NEGATIVE INTO A POSITIVE
It was so frustrating…
We ordered these piggybanks from a company in China, and they were like, "Okay, it’s on its way."
We were like, "Sweet, they’re gonna be here well within enough time."
Then a few weeks later, we got a message saying, "Oh, the plastic to create them is almost here."
We were like, "Okay, but that's NOT what you said. You said they were on the way!"
So, what we're gonna box each of those things up,( 'cause we said people would have them, so we owe them), and ship them out, on our penny, to EVERYBODY who was at the event along with something else as well...
Which is super cool!
So negative thing turned into a positive, you know what I mean?
Just super frustrating, #OurBad.
But that was the ONLY negative comment I heard about the entire event
And usually, there are some negative comments that pop up …
I've done A LOT of events and A LOT a lot of speaking, in A LOT of places…
And there's ALWAYS someone!
But it was an awesome event ... Oh my gosh, it was awesome!
WHAT NEXT?
So the event was on a Monday and Tuesday…
On Wednesday, I woke up... and I don't think it had hit me yet.
I was tired, but, to be honest, I was riding the high.
1.9 million? What? Crazy!
It was super exciting and very honoring.
So, anyway, we had to go and clear the event room; the AV team and Boise Center dealt with most of it, but we still had stuff, upon stuff upon stuff to deal with.
There was a huge room full of leftover swag...‘cause we ordered A LOT of EVERYTHING!
So we rented a U-Haul, (that's how we got it all there in the first place), and it took two trips...
We had two U-Hauls worth of stuff.
Then once we dropped the U-Haul off, Austin, Colton, and I just started fading...
We wanted to go see a movie to celebrate real quick 'cause we knew that it was about to hit the fan again…
'Cause now we have to start putting all the stuff together for onboarding, meeting, calling people, and stuff like that...
And it's just a whirlwind.
So we went and we decided, "Hey, let's go see this movie."
I didn't eat for almost the entire event. I was just so dialed in that I didn't realize.
… so we were starving!
We were just super hungry and just sprinting around - none of us really slept much.
At the end of the event, we went an ordered $71 worth of concessions from this crappy movie theater.
It was the MOST dumpy movie theater I've ever seen in my life.
It was so bad that sitting down made me wanna wash my hands.
… it was so bad, but we just didn't care.
I don't even remember really what the movie was about. I don't even remember the movie we saw…
Oh, it was the new Men in Black, it wasn't that good. Not enough of a heuristic journey in it.
And that's where we've been, and that's the recap on what happened.
The event cost a quarter million, we pulled in $1.9 million
...which is exciting and impressive. Obviously, I feel really satisfied with it.
But you have to know, I'm tired…
#REALLYTIRED!
It's taken me a week, and even then I'm sleeping like 10 hours every night trying to catch up.
I'm chronically exhausted, and so I've started thinking through the longevity of me, and what does that require?
WHAT’S YOUR COOKIE?
So we have this tradition in my business called ‘The Cookies.’
I say, "What's your cookie?"
Then we decide, "Okay, what would I want that's around 500 bucks?” ...and we each name what our individual motivational cookie.
And when we get our critical things done we go get the $500 thing…
… that’s OUR COOKIE!
Right now, the critical things in the business are:
And so what I've been doing this past little bit is just thinking through the strategic moves I could make in the business to save *ME*...
'Cause I'm NOT the business, but in the last few weeks, it has felt that way.
REMOVING ‘ME’ FROM THE BUSINESS
We're finally getting to a growth, a speed, and a phase where I need MORE people and an office.
I've been ‘appropriately annoying’ certain realtors in the area...
“I would walk into an office tomorrow. Show me a dang office!”
The squeaky wheel gets the oil, right! 😉
I've bootstrapped out of a room in my house that's technically my office...
But we're too big now, meaning there's three of us in this little bedroom.
I’ve got three kids screaming on the other side of the doors, and that's actually the real reason I started yelling on podcasts.
Most of you don't know that… 😂
I’d hear a little rivalry going on between my first and second kid, and that's the real reason I’d yell…
I’d just hear them start to go at it, and I'd be like, "And you're gonna build a funnel!!!!”
...it's part of the reason why I'm out at the park right now!
I love my kids, and I never ever, ever, ever, ever wanna stifle their energy levels, so I need to move.
I'm all for bootstrapping, there's no reason to spend money you don't need to, but now is the time...
So the office, the assistant, the support person, those are the next strategic moves that I'm making.
IT’S MONDAY, BABY!
The other thing that I'm doing is diving heavily into onboarding systems and processes.
I’m actually moving a lot of my systems out of Trello.
If you guys are like, "Steven, I don't understand what you're talking about."
I totally get it.
Project management systems are awesome but they can also be a big pain in the butt.
Sometimes they're too intensive.
I love Trello, but I need something that's less breakable for users.
I need something that I don't need to educate my people for.
So we're switching to monday.com 'cause “It's Monday, Baby!”
I should be an affiliate for them, that'd be fun.
So we're changing and transitioning everything from Trello to Monday... and we're putting more onboarding processes in place.
... and that's where I am.
BUILD SLOWLY
So right now…
There’s a lot of stuff in the air, but it’s on purpose.
And I wanna drop one little nugget here.
I always want to build certain things slowly.
I heard Dana Derricks mention this as well.
He's like, "Yeah I wanna build stuff slowly so that I can build a system behind it."
And I was like, "Oh, that's awesome."
I'd been building that way, but I’d never put it into words like that.
I like to do is build these systems slower than it looks like I could because I'm building a system behind the system.
80% is already done, but it’s that last 20% that makes it more turnkey...
The last little 20% putting the systems into place... I do slow, and it's so that I can critique my own thing.
MY FAVOURITE SEMESTER
Back when I was in college, one of my favorite times was a semester where we had no classes.
The ONLY thing that we had to do was to start a business from scratch, and the professors were NOT allowed to help us or give us any instruction.
All they were supposed to do is…
… and that's what we did.
It was one of the greatest educations in all of my college experience.
I was with this group of 15 other students, and they put us in the food business.
I suck at cooking.
I have no desire to learn cooking, I just don't. I'll pay for someone else to cook me food, and I do.
So when I heard I was in a food business, I was like, "Oh my gosh, are you serious? I don't wanna do this."
I was mad about it.
At that point in my life, I was already gung ho entrepreneurially and everyone knew that, so they voted me as the CEO.
I was like, "Crap. Dang it, I don't wanna do this."
....and what happened was every single decision was being placed on my shoulders…
EVERY DECISION!
For example:
We were selling empanadas, I didn't even know what they were.
Someone would say, "Stephen, we've got these logo designs, which one do you like?"
(Back when I thought logos mattered 😉)
And I'd be like, "Oh, let's go with that one."
And then someone else would walk up to me, "Stephen, do you like this flavor empanada or this one?"
And I'd be like, "Which one does the customer like more? Sweet, let's go with that one."
"Stephen, the supply chain's having an issue and we're having an issue with a certain kind of ingredient, it's not gonna show up till this time, but we think we can hold out if we cut back recipe usage of this one ingredient for a little while."
“Okay, cool let's do that.”
It was *MURDER*
For the first three, four weeks of that semester, I was dead.
Then for some reason, I was like, "Oh my gosh, that's why you create departments."
And that might sound funny... but I just didn't know that.
So I was like,
# "You five, you're gonna go over, you are now in charge of finance.
Please keep track of all the numbers, make sure our margins really are what we think they are.
Help me know what we can spend on marketing stuff."
('Cause I thought marketing needed a budget back then.)
# I was like, "Cool, you five over here, you're in the supply chain, please order all the stuff mix, we have enough things that we can survive with.
Make sure you talk with finance to make sure that the stuff you're ordering can actually get paid for."
# Then I went to marketing, "Hey, what's up, marketing?" '
(I thought marketing should be a department by that time also.)
I was like, "Hey, marketing, please bring in more sales, we really need to bring our projections and how much money we're gonna make by this level, by this time."
And that helped.
Another week would go by, another two weeks would go by, but I'm still having all these people come in.
So then I created department heads.
I was like, "Cool, 80% of decisions are gonna be made by these heads. I'm just going to work with the heads of each department daily, that's it…”
And I went to them.
And suddenly our little fledgling system business actually started growing wheels, and we did quite well selling broke college students empanadas.
We had health inspectors come on in, and it was a crazy cool experience.
One of the reasons why it did so well was that halfway through the day, during the middle of the busiest seasons, I would disappear.
You see where I am right now… 😉
#ParkLife
I disappear to observe my system.
IT IS YOUR FAULT!
One of the issues people have when they start putting together some of these things that I teach is that they think it's the person that should be held responsible.
Now ultimately, sure, right!
But that's NOT actually what you need to be judging the success of your marketing with.
You judge the system, not the person.
There was a time a while ago, (this isn’t happening right now)...
There was a time a while ago, I was like, "Why aren't these individuals doing this thing that I asked?"
And after a while of being completely belligerent in the way I was judging the person falsely, (which I shouldn't have been), I realized…
"Oh my gosh, my system sucks. It's NOT the person.”
Q: Have they ever had success?
A: Yes, they have.
So it's NOT them, it's my system, it's *ME*.
And taking that level of ownership and realizing that, "You don't have a process in place..."
That's helped me like crazy.
So why am I bringing that up right now?
I'm bringing that up right now because we have one of the most incredible programs ever that cause A LOT of success for people in the funnel and marketing world.
This is a powerful program, I know it is. It's NOT cheap but it's powerful.
And so my role in the program is NOT to do the program; my role is to tweak the program.
My role is to look at the systems and the structures that deliver what we promised and tweak the processes.
That's my role.
So when I talk about the next steps:
Frankly, it’s ridiculous that we haven't had those things yet. I'm just gonna be honest…
We're kind of dying and it's a little bit insane that we haven't got that support yet.
Sooo…
My role is for the next little while here is to solely focus on the process for the fulfillment for these things.
MAKING IT SIMPLE
Here’s the question I’m asking…
How can I make it so stupid simple for every client that comes in?
(... it already is, but how can I keep doing that?)
I'm gonna ask the question again and again and again…
That's where simplicity comes in.
*YOU MAKE IT SIMPLE*
I probably spent 20 hours cutting OfferMind material, NOT adding complexity.
I was chopping stuff to make it so simple that everyone would get it, and they did.
And I know that’s one of the reasons WHY the event has been raved about so much on the Internet.
I chopped stuff out, I didn’t add.
There’s a quote from Ray Kurzweil that says:
The purposeful destruction of information is the essence of intelligent work.
Don't keep trying to make stuff…
Instead, see how much you can take away.
And that's the key with it. that's the key to building processes... that's the key to ANYTHING you're delivering.
I'll tell you…
Russell gave me some advice a little while ago, and he's like:
"Hey man, if I was ever to start this over again, I'd focus on certain areas, but instead of doing ‘this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this and this…’
I would make my product do ONE THING really well."
And I was like, "Oh that's gold, my friend.”
#Gold
Anyway, so I know it's a longer episode here, but I just wanted to recap what’s happened and what my NEXT steps are.
So super excited about it, really honored by it! I’m pumped to have those of you who are in OfferLab with me - 'cause *this* is pretty ridiculous.
#DevelopingMyCatergory.
BOOM!
If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.
But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?
That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.
So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.
Wanna come?
There are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days.
You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.
Again, that's OfferMind.com.
Here's a sneak peek of the event hall, the week before OfferMind. I walk through some of the event psychology…
I’m about to take you back in time to four days before my 2019 OfferMInd Event…
So I can reveal to you…
OFFERMIND 2019 TIME TRAVELING
I’m standing in the Boise Center where, in ONLY four days, OfferMind2019 is about to take place!!!
It’s a beautiful place with lots of salespeople hanging out below me in the courtyard!
I'm not finished with my slides or my presentation… and we have a ton of swag to stuff…
But I want to take a moment to show you around and share some fascinating event psychology that you may not be aware of.
What's fascinating is that I’m completely aware that…
What I am doing right now is NOT normal for the amount of time that I've been doing it.
… it's NOT a boasting thing, but it is a reality.
I haven't been graduated from college for even four years yet, which is nuts!
I'm pretty sure we just crossed $2 million in total revenue, and now we have an event that’s gonna be around 650 people - that's crazy!
Let me ask you a question…
Q: How many people have built a funnel?
A: A lot of people have built a funnel.
Q: How many people have built a funnel that has made no money?
A: A lot, right?
… and that's rough to say, but it's true.
However, it's NOT the funnel. It's the person.
At the time of me making this video, we’ve sold 624 tickets and for the last few months, we've been selling roughly 10-tickets a day…
I don't know why, but that's about what we've been at for a little while, and it's pretty steady.
Selling events is hard.
It's one thing to sell a product on the internet, it's totally different to get somebody to…
You know what I mean?
FROM CLICKFUNNELS TO OFFERMIND
I left my job, January 1st, 2018 - that's when I officially pulled the cord and decided to be a solo entrepreneur…
I very quickly realized that being a solo entrepreneur is the same thing as being broke.
So things have changed a ton for since then… and next year’s OfferMind is gonna bring things full circle for me in an exciting way…
But for now, let’s go back to OfferMind 2019!
So when people enter the building from the courtyard, they’ll use the escalators or the elevator to get to the event hall.
Registration is gonna be in this room….
We're flying in a company that ONLY does registration for events - ‘cause the registration process has gotta be smooth like butter.
We have these iPads loaded with all the ticket data, so you come in and you plug in the email that you bought with and it finds your record…
And then, right on the spot, it actually prints out the ticket. It's really cool.
Everyone gets a tag, but if you're a VIP you get an extra little tag that says ‘VIP ‘ - that gives YOU access to a bunch of stuff.
You get a t-shirt, a ton of other things
THE WAR AGAINST BAD SWAG!
Oh, my gosh, our swag is soooo good!!!
I hate bad swag.
I owe it to my message to make nice swag... and so, I do.
This event cost me a solid quarter million.
*SOLID*
I love what I do and I want people to have a good time when they show up.
And when I say “This is marketing,” I can't be the guy who has no proof in the way he's living.
*I owe it to my message*
It's NOT about showboating 'cause I certainly don't do that...
Man, I get my haircut at SportsClips 😉
So, swag-wise, people are gonna get…
There are about 30 amazing incredible volunteers showing up to do and I'm so appreciative of them.
We got A LOT of swag to set up.
We have from 1 PM to about 4 PM Sunday to stuff swag and get things ready.
AN OFFER HE COULDN’T REFUSE!
Some people have asked, "Stephen, why did you do the event on Labor Day?"
Well, if you go back to Sales Funnel Radio (maybe 50 episodes ago)...
The title of the episode is How I Pitched Russell Brunson to Keynote at OfferMind.
...I went through, in-depth, the offer that I sent to Russell in order to ask him to speak - ‘cause he doesn't speak at events anymore…
So how did I get Russell to turn up at OfferMind?
And, NOPE, it wasn’t just because we have a relationship - I was NOT willing to rely on that.
Part of the offer was that he got to choose the date.
That way, it was very hard to say, "I just don't have the time."
We were like, "Well, we’ll move it," and we did!
OfferMind was supposed to be in July, and then we thought maybe August... and then we were like, "What about October?"
One of the reasons we got Russell was because I was like, "Well, you get to choose the date.”
( … some of the others were Sushi and massage, but you’ll have to read the blog post to find out more 😉)
KEEPING THE DREAM ALIVE
For people who came to OfferMind last year, we're actually doing a special breakfast for them on the morning of day one.
I'm gonna meet-and-greet and say, "Hey, thanks so much. Thanks for keeping the dream alive."
This is my second OfferMind, and the first one had 150 people - this one has 650!
That’s NOT normal growth in one year.
(...in fact, I think, it's only been 11 months.)
GET RICH GIVE BACK
So anyway, as you walk back out to the main foyer, over on the side we're doing an OUR donation.
OUR are actually bringing a booth - it's super heart-warming.
I gotta be honest, I'm actually really excited we're doing that. It's one of the things I'm most excited about for this event, frankly.
We also have a swag store that's going right over there, 'cause all you all love the Capitalist Pig...
We also have ClickFunnels coming to talk about One Funnel Away.
ClickFunnels is coming to freaking OfferMind.
WHAT!!!
It's one thing to get Russell, (which is really hard), but to get ClickFunnels to come, I was like, "WHAT? How about them apples! What's up son?"
OFFERMIND EVENT ‘SECRET SAUCE. PSYCHOLOGY
You need to understand that one of the reasons events work is because you transport somebody.
So next year's OfferMind is actually in San Diego in the same room that my first Funnel Hacking Live was in.
OfferMind 2020 is in the same room as Funnel Hacking Live 2016.
… it’s kinda like, "Let's tie the bow on this, let's go full circle!"
We already have the room…
But what's funny is that when I saw the room, I did not recognize it.
And that’s a very key point…
When you set up an event, it’s my belief that people can't realize they're even in a room - it has to transport them to a different scenario.
There are very few things on this planet, in my opinion, that are more effective than attending a live event.
I'm a sucker for live events; I think I'm speaking at six in the next 10 weeks after OfferMind.
I'm speaking A LOT this fall.
And you have to be able to transport people to a new scenario when they come to an event.
So, at OfferMind, there’s gonna be...
We’ll have around 650 people, and about 100 are gonna be Early Access.
The doors will stay closed on purpose until right before the event because there needs to be that feeling of anticipation!
So the doors are gonna be closed, they cannot just walk in.
At 8:30 AM, we have VIPs walking into Early Access... and then at 8:45, only 15 minutes before the event starts, the rest of the doors open.
AND IT STARTS… and there's gonna be smoke and lights!
*It has to transport people*
And maybe there's a better way to say it, but if they came back to this room a few years later, (like I did at Funnel Hacking Live), they should NOT be able to recognize that this was the room they were in…
That's happened at pretty much every single Funnel Hacking Live event I've ever been to.
The change of scene pulls people out of their comfort “I'm gonna stay the same way I've always been” zone…
… so they actually have the ability to make some real changes in their life.
There’s a little state control with it, but what's MORE powerful in my opinion, is that people are doing things they've never done because they're in a place they've never been.
They're in a state that they're not used to being in, and they find out:
“Good crap! I am capable of more in my life than I knew that I was previously.”
That's why you do it.
It's a pre-frame for everything that they will hear on the stage.
So anyway, the room itself…
UP CLOSE & PERSONAL
I don't like deep rooms, I like shallow rooms that bring the people closer to the speaker and the slides.
So we're changing the long hall to a shallow room…...
...and the backdrop is gonna go across the whole back part right there.
There's gonna be tables for everybody, which I like because I take A LOT of notes.
My first Funnel Hacking Live, I took 56 pages of notes.
I found the notebook the other day too, I take a lot of notes.
Have I ever reviewed them? No. That's not the point. That's how I learn.
When I process and I'm thinking, I take notes. For some reason, adding an action really helps me learn.
I don't care if people don't read their notes, I hope they do, but that's beside the point.
We’re gonna have tables for everybody so they can go in and take notes.
We have the coolest looking notebook ever and a beautiful pen, which might sound cheesy, but I'm a little bit of a geek for that.
I don't need a crazy expensive pen, but I like a good pen.
We've got water bottles and there's an event book.
The event book is the guide of the event and the schedule of when things are happening.
We don't put times on speeches, because we don't want people cherry-picking which ones they wanna go to.
Events are crafted in an order.
You're supposed to receive the event in ‘an order’.
In my opinion, almost as hard as filling the event, is coming up with the event order.
A lot of times you'll see people who have never thrown an event before, and they just like, "Who's speaking next?”
Urgh, NO!
Events are meant to be consumed in ‘an order’ because they're experiencing a webinar over two days.
We’re obviously recording it, so I've got photographers walking around all over the place.
I have multiple videographer companies - 'cause we need a lot of creative.
I want people to find themselves in the pictures when we release them to everybody else afterward.
I think it's crazy that events will keep their pictures of the audience.
Man, if you give that out and share around, it is the craziest pieces of social proof ever.
Don't wanna hang on to it.
I want this to be a well-documented experience.
And if the audience can't do it, then it's such a big deal that I will spend a lot of money to create the creative and then hand it out afterward.
It's a BIG deal.
I spent a lot of money on creative and AV and stuff like that. AV is very expensive, but that's okay....
It’s part of the experience. It needs to transport them.
HOW I AFFORD EXPENSIVE THINGS IN MY BUSINESS…
Let me tell you…
I would NOT be able to afford this event with my current cash flow levels had it not been for affiliate marketing.
That's another affiliate marketing plug 😉
Go to makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com. (of course, it's a playoff the Trump thing, come on), and you can see how I run all my affiliate stuff.
In fact, I give access to a lot of sweet programs for FREE.
Anyway, that's beside the point… 😉
But that's how I've been able to pay for all the stuff that I do.
I actually do what I teach.
Whenever I need to pay for something expensive, I'm like:
"Hey, here's my normal cash flow levels...
We're only allowed to scale ads to a certain level, (thank you, Facebook, or wherever we're putting ads)...
So even if we did scale as aggressively as we could, it's still not gonna be the cash flow level I need in order to pay for something really expensive...
How else could I pay for that?”
I watched Russell solve that problem multiple times with a much higher price tag.
Entrepreneurs are problem solvers.
OFFERMIND 2019 - WHAT HAPPENED?
OFFERMINDDAY #1:
Who Spoke...
Dana talked about how to find your Dream 100.
I think everybody has at least a bit of an idea on what to do once you have the Dream 100, but figuring out who to put on the list is very hard.
It's kind of a challenge - you don't take people off your list easily, so who do you put on and who do you NOT put on?
(I did an interview with each of these speakers, check them out…)
Brad Gibb talked about what to do to cash flow ‘personally’ harder from your business.
The reason this is important is that…
There are A LOT of Two Comma Club Winners who are broke - their business has money, but they don't.
And so Brad’s taught what to do to actually get paid and compensated for the hard work that you do.
So Brad taught personal cash flow tactics.
I taught my process; last year was good, but it was pretty nerdy…
This year was very different.
By the end of day one, people had a clear idea of what their offer is and why it will sell.
That's another thing I've noticed when listening to people who've made money...
A lot of people don't know WHY they made the money.
You should be able to have a clear understanding of your message and your offer.
OFFERMIND DAY #2:
If you’re thinking, "Oh I know what a message is..."
*I highly doubt it*
I highly doubt it you will have heard about it in the way that I talked about.
In fact, I've had a hard time calling it ‘a message or an offer”
'Cause I don't want people to think they know what it is.
It probably isn't what you think
A campaign, definitely not - that's a dying term in today's direct response marketing world.
…. how to actually offer what you've created.
And then…
What's interesting about some of the things I've watched Russell go through is…
Same skill set, different vehicles, vastly different increases in revenue.
So choosing the business model matters.
This is NOT a funnel event, it's a money event.
And next year, same thing, but we'll have different speakers probably every year.
But, anyway, it's not a funnel event. It's hardly an offer event. You're gonna learn offers, but it's really a money-making event, #Oink.
I'm really psyched about all this stuff.
It's extremely rare for how long I've been out to do something this big and I get that, and I feel the pressure of it.
I’ve not been sleeping a lot, which is just part of the game.
And I always get people to reach out and say, "You should sleep."
No. I'll sleep after it's over!
SELLING OFFERLAB
Of course, I'm gonna sell...come on!
My program is called OfferLab and I haven't been that public about it 'cause I've been testing it for the last year, making a lot of tweaks.
This is the second year that we opened enrollment...
We had 200 of these awesome boxes that are stacking way up high on this super tall window.
They also got what we call the golden ticket to get picture with me on stage.
My program's good and it changes tons of lives.
I know it's good, so I have a responsibility to sell, and I hope you treat your product that way as well.
I really look forward to selling, it doesn’t freak me out. I'm actually really stoked about it.
I wish we could just start with that.
We did sales tables at the front of the room and no sit down ‘one-on-one’ conversations with sales guys.
...if people like it, sweet. If not, that's fine too.
It was low key, it's NOT a high-pressure thing.
I'm also sharing the patterns I found among four or five old school marketers of how they behaved when selling products.
... and it's one of the reasons my stuff has done so well.
I looked historically at what all the old dead guys doing before social media and the easy cop-out ways to promote were even around.
I'm sorry, did I say that out loud? 😉
Well, I found those patterns and I've been applying them!
...and I'm gonna share that too.
Alright, guys. I'll see you later. If you guys want to come to next year's OfferMind, we'd love to have you.
For next year's event room, I don't wanna go above 1000 people. I just don't.
For Funnel Hacking Live or other people's events, 100 people to me feels a little bit small. Maybe I'm just kinda weird that way…
When it's a higher ticket program, I want it a lot smaller, and that's how it is with OfferLab - it's way smaller than this because it's very workshoppy.
I literally walk around the room and spot check people's funnels and offers and campaigns.
It's really fun.
So, for San Diego, we'll probably cap the room.
There's 650 at the last OfferMind, and I'm seeing where things are moving.
I'm seeing what it takes to put on something like this. I don't want the room over 900 or maybe a thousand. I just don't.
So, go to offermind.com to get a ticket and more information.
I'm hoping that this is inspiring you - that's the whole purpose of this episode. It's NOT to showboat. It's to say, "Holy crap! It's been 20 months only, not that long."
A lot of times, you can pull amazing stuff off as soon as you get out of your own way.
Funny enough, for me, one of the biggest keys was confidence.
I’d love to have you come to OfferMind next year.
Get rich, my friends.
BOOM!
If you're just starting out you're probably studying a lot. That's good. You're probably geeking out on all the strategies, right? That's also good.
But the hardest part is figuring out what the market wants to buy and how you should sell it to them, right?
That's what I struggled with for a while until I learned the formula.
So I created a special Mastermind called an OfferMind to get you on track with the right offer, and more importantly the right sales script to get it off the ground and sell it.
Wanna come?
There are small groups on purpose, so I can answer your direct questions in person for two straight days.
You can hold your spot by going to OfferMind.com.
Again, that's OfferMind.com.
I'm frequently asked how you know when you’re following-up too often? Here's my answer, some stats, and a few guidelines to consider…
"Steven, how much is too much emailing? How much is too often to follow-up with somebody after I try to sell them?"
(Those of you who are experienced might be chuckling just a little bit here…)
But or those of you who are brand new at this game or haven't had success yet - this follow-up question is pretty common for me to get asked!
And funnily enough, the answer is very, very simple - so I wanna give you a few examples to illustrate.
SALES FOLLOW UP?
I recently heard Frank Kern talking on Instagram.
He had this bowl of mints and he put them in 3 different piles…
He said that one of the biggest mistakes people make is ONLY targeting those who are ready to buy immediately.
Funny enough, he said that it's not actually those who are ready to buy right now that you need to be focusing on…
You should actually focus more on the second group who’ll be ready to purchase in 60-90 days
And I totally get what he's saying.
By all means, #GetTheSale by focusing on those people who’re ready to purchase…
But don't neglect those who need to wait 60-90 days in order to buy…
… because it’s actually a much larger pot.
I was like, "Oh, that's super clever."
One of the major benefits of publishing frequently, (if you've chosen to follow my advice and do that), is that it allows you to warm up the 60-90 day pot.
HOW TO FOLLOW UP WITH LEADS...
So here are the general questions I tend to get asked:
My standard follow-up sequence for a funnel is usually about five days long...
However, there are other scenarios where the follow up is much longer than that.
I was talking with Trey Llewellyn, (we both went to Myron Golden’s speaker training event)...
I was like, "Holy crap, that's Trey."
And Trey looks up and goes, "Oh, my gosh, that's Steve. Look at those eyes."
Anyway, we were chatting and he told me about one of his webinars where he's got something like a two-month follow-up sequence.
I was like, "Holy crap, that's BIG!"
He goes, "Yeah, yeah, I know."
He told me that he ALWAYS gets a few more people buying because of the length of the sequence.
There are A LOT of marketers who will wake up and add an additional email at the end of a massive email sequence...
...so now they have this year-long email sequence.
Follow-up is EVERYTHING.
I FOUND THIS IN MY CUPBOARD!
When I was doing door-to-door sales, they handed us this manual, and I still have it. 😂
I found it in my cupboard ...and it has some really interesting stats about follow up.
This is actually from that old door-to-door sales manual:
“If you've ever watched a four-year-old, “No!” doesn't bother them.
So the next step is just to keep asking.
Don't be stopped by the first ‘No’ - continue to ask for the sale until they give you a ‘Yes!’”
Now, if you’ve studied any kind of sales, or if you are a salesperson, you know that the first “No” is actually when the sale begins.
When your prospect says “No” ...it actually guides and helps you know what you should be doing next.
So this is a powerful principle to understand 'cause most people think “No” means NO!
But usually, ‘No’ means…
Most people are NOT ready to purchase right out of the gate.
To illustrate my point, I'm just gonna read you a few stats...
F
47% of salespeople stop after the first “No”…
That means that ALMOST half of salespeople NEVER follow up.
You might be thinking, “Well, Steve, that doesn’t apply to me, I’m NOT a salesperson!”
BUT…
If you're an entrepreneur, make no mistake, you ARE a salesperson.
That means that almost half the people who are out trying to sell their things never ask more than one time, EVER!
Think about that… that's crazy!
YOU’RE LEAVING MONEY ON THE TABLE
Most people never even do just one follow up and, let me tell you, the majority of my money comes from follow up.
But most people don't even follow up once…
#CRAZY
Twelve percent of people will fail to follow-up after the fourth rejection.
However, statistically, it takes six to eight follow ups before MOST people are willing to say “Yes.”
Now, there’s a way to follow up that's annoying…
... I'm NOT telling you to do high-pressure sales.
However, I looked at a ton of credible sources for this data, and it confirmed, "Yeah, a lot of times people need more follow up."
But…
There's a way to do follow up with A LOT of value.
ASKING FOR THE SALE
You’ll notice that a lot of my Sales Funnel Radio episodes have the same outro and the same call to action at the end of the episodes.
I use the same outros over and over again.
That's me asking ‘again’ for the sale.
So understand what I'm telling you about here…
You can continue to ask over and over and over and over and over and over and over …
But it doesn't mean you need to be annoying…and it doesn't mean you need to be high pressure.
In fact, I ask you to NOT be high pressure, because that's gonna be hard on your future sales…
… you’re really gonna piss people off!
Here’s another stat for you:
94% of salespeople fall short after the fifth ”No!”
But if you think back to what Frank Kern was talking about…
Most people need the 60-90-day range to make a good decision.
That doesn't mean don’t get sales from those who are looking to buy, it just means don't neglect the greater percentage who aren’t ready to purchase yet.
There’s a ton of marketers who are solely email-based, and they just add another email or two to the end of their sequence…
... and they end up with a giant sequence.
I think the longest one follow-up sequence I've ever heard of is well over a year.
You join their list and it's all automated and the money comes in during the follow up.
DON’T BE AN AMATEUR
I think it's Brendon Burchard who says that he spends aggressively to acquire customers.
He's willing to be in the hole for several months because…
The follow-up is where he makes his money.
You've probably heard Russell Brunson mention that amateurs focus on the front end…
… and the reason why that’s true is that the professionals know that people joining your list is NOT enough - *you gotta go follow up*
I’ve got a few students that ask “How many times is too much?”
( ...and I wanna get into that in a moment with you)
But during my research, I found one blog that was kinda funny; it said that there are only a few scenarios where you should stop following up with somebody…
It was joking... but there's some seriousness to this as well... 😂
Another reason to stop following up with a prospect is…
But then you should just start following up for the next sale.
I think we get a little bit weak on our follow up 'cause we get nervous.
However…
There's a way to follow up while adding a lot of value
...and I ask you to follow up in that way.
THIS MAY PISS YOU OFF!
When I'm creating a follow-up sequence I do a standard five emails; usually, within three days.
That's just kind of my standard rinse and repeat version.
But I don't want just anybody on my list!
It common practice for some marketers to routinely download their list, and then remove everybody who hasn't opened their email for a while…
…. and from an email deliverability standpoint, I get it.
But from a marketing standpoint, I have to say, that “I feel like that's somewhat of a failure to do that…”
So instead...
I want people to NOT like me so much that they opt-out.
#GOOD!
Think about how much I spend to put somebody on a list… and then I go take them off???
In my opinion, they should opt-out because I've been aggressive in my marketing and because they’re truly just NOT a fit.
I would rather people opt-out my list than remove them myself because I was NOT marketing hard enough.
Does that make sense?
LIST MANAGEMENT LARSEN STYLE…
I honestly, I don't take anybody off my list...
Instead…
....about what I believe or don't believe in!
I'm so aggressive that people will opt-out if they’re NOT a good fit.
I use SendGrid and I've got four different SMTP accounts…
… it's awesome!
And I think it's because I truly do share a lot of my opinions on here.
In fact, some of the funnels I've launched in the last four months…
For example:
Any time I launch Make Affiliates Great Again, I mean, come on, it's totally a play of Trump's thing; “Make America great again!”
We even put Trump's toupee looking wig on top of the logo.
… and it was offensive to people!
I knew it would ruffle some feathers, but I didn't realize how many feathers it would ruffle.
It was A LOT of feathers.
People started opting out….
#GOOD
I wasn't like, "Oh my gosh, how many unsubscribes there are?"
I would rather it was that way; I don't wanna go clean them out myself. I want them to opt-out.
The Capitalist Pig thing; people opt-out…
… that's okay.
I get about 80 to 100 people joining my list a day and I think I get 10 to 20 leaving every day too.
I’d rather be that way.
I'm gonna clean house, man, but I'm doing it with a marketing message.
Meaning, I don't wanna go send it to some list scrubber.
THIS WORKS!
Here are the rough numbers to prove it… 😉
Every single month, I usually make about 30 to 40 grand in front-end kind of offers.
And if you're like, “Steve, I don't see any front-end offers?”
It’s because I treat my affiliate things as front end offers, and we do 30 to 50 grand a month in those things…
Now, if we didn't do any follow-up, if there was nothing else I could push too, it would end there…
But we actually do anywhere from 120 to usually 200 grand a month.
So we're making another couple of dollars per person we're bringing on in.
The fortune’s definitely in the follow-up
YOUR ‘NEW’ FOLLOW UP STRATEGY
So when people ask how much follow up is too often, I don't know…
I haven’t found the limit yet!
When people build lists and they say, “I don't know what to do with it?” - my answer is SIMPLE...
Man, send messages to them!
If they don't like it, then they’ll leave and actually do you a favor
... so don't worry about it.
I get it, I had the same fear.
However…
The faster you get over the fear of following up, the faster you're gonna have a thicker wallet.
That mentality in your head is directly tied to revenue.
So think through about how you're gonna treat your follow-up as seriously as your promotions.
... I shared mine with you a few episodes ago.
I have a little SOP around how I'm gonna treat my follow-up sequence regardless of what it is.
The fortune is certainly in the follow-up.
Remember, you don't *STOP* until they…
… 😉
Anyway, hopefully, you enjoyed this! I appreciate you, and I’ll see you next time ( unless you unsubscribe 😎).
Bye.
Haha! Awesome episode, right?
Hey, bear with me for just a moment while I tell you about makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com.
Probably one of the most fragile phases of being an entrepreneur is that tender spot where you have just enough cash coming in to get excited…
But expenses also increase a little while you take on:
It can be heart-pounding, and frankly, nerve-wracking.
Well, one of the ways I've kept ownership of my companies and NEVER picked up any debt or used any of our family finances to grow the business, was through affiliate marketing.
My first dollar online actually came from affiliate marketing, ONLY a few years ago.
So I often get asked the question:
“Steve, how can you have been bootstrapping this and scraping by so hard just a few years ago, but now have a business that makes millions in revenue?”
… that's a fair question!
So besides having kick-butt products, when I've needed to get some extra cash for an expensive project, I have a very specific method of affiliate marketing that gets me paid to sell other people's products.
You wanna see how I do it?
Just go to makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com.
ClickFunnels actually wants to know how I've been doing this as well…
So I just wrote a chapter in ClickFunnels' new book called Affiliate Bootcamp…
If you wanna see my chapter, and be shown how I treat affiliate cash in my business, just go to…
... and you'll get a bunch of other cool stuff from me - like, the actual Make Affiliates Great Again Funnel…
The one you're gonna see there - it’s pre-built - it’s awesome - and you can download it.
You also get my audio chapter on how I create affiliate offers.
You get the actual video of me training my team on how to build ‘Make Affiliates Great Again’ - it's crazy valuable.
Plus you also get several my other stage speeches.
How I launched my affiliate offers…
And you'll even get a discount ticket to OfferMind… + the Make Affiliates Great Again Mini-Course…
Is it okay if I over-deliver???
If you want ALL that for free... (plus other things), literally just sign up at makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com... and then, sign up for the New Affiliate Bootcamp through my affiliate link.
Go figure.
My friends, get rich, give back.
Here's a snapshot of the mental stuff I do to stay in the game before I speak on any stage...
It seems like questions often come in themes and in waves.
I don't know if it's just 'cause I have my ear to the ground listening to what people are asking me…
But it seems like the recent wave of questions are all about, “How do you prepare before you go on stage?”
By the time you read this, OfferMind 2019 will be over, and so I thought it would be the perfect time to share how a guy who used to hate public speaking preps for LIVE events
I didn't really think about my preparation until people started asking the question, but when I started to look more closely, I discovered that:
Before I speak on stage, there's a pattern that I go through that comes in two phases.
… you may find some of what I do a little surprising, (and frankly, a few years back, I could never have imagined myself doing some of this stuff 😉)
MY TWO-PHASE SPEECH PREPARATION
On my office floor right now, there’s tons of yellow paper all over the place…
... and it's where I collect my ideas as I start to think through and organize my content.
I've done it for a couple of years now... and the system works well for me, and so I keep doing it.
So it's the preparing/ thinking phase where:
(I actually use a cool bit of kit that Alex Charfen introduced me to, I’ll show you a bit later)
However, as the actual event gets nearer, my behavior changes a bit as I move into the 2nd phase.
So I thought it would be kinda cool if I wrote a list of the things that I do, and shared them with you…
STATE CONTROL 101
There were many times at ClickFunnels when Russell would walk in and be like, "I'm not gonna lie, I really don't know what I wanna do what I gotta do today...”
I’d say, “Yep, I'm not gonna lie, I gotta build three funnels today, me neither!”
...and we’d be like, “How do we move forward?”
So we’d take a moment, and sometimes we’d…
...but we always used the same few things to kick us into state (usually, Seven Nation Army).
We’d jump about and do some Tony Robbins type state control…
I did mentally make fun of it for the first little bit….
But then, I was like, "Oh my gosh, what if, what if this actually works?”
... and I started doing it.
*IT WORKS*
Suddenly, it's like, “Man, I'm really tired, but I'm ready to rock.”
And as the last three years in my ‘stage speaking career’ have unfolded, I’ve come up with my own kind of state control patterns that help me get ready to go on stage.
PRIMING YOUR RAS RECEPTORS
I've been listening to a super fascinating book lately called Buying On The Brain.
...it's a challenging book to chew.
You really gotta think hard when you listen to it.
So if you're like, "I don't wanna go listen to it,” don't worry, 'cause I'm a nerd and I'm gonna distill it down and bring the key takeaways back to the show…
Anyway, I've been listening to this part of the book and it talks a lot about the RAS receptors in the brain...
Let me explain…
Have you ever woken up a little bit late with that anxiety feeling?
You’re fast asleep and suddenly, you wake up - BOOM! “Oh, crap the alarm didn't go off,” or whatever… and you go flying out of bed!
Everyone knows that feeling...
You get that hasty, “Oh, My Gosh,” feeling and you go flying around to get all the pieces together, and jump in the car…
You’re like "Oh, my gosh, hurry!”
You go super fast as you're driving to the office or wherever…
Finally, you arrive wherever you're late for and you're like, “Oh, my gosh, I'm sorry!”
... and the rest of the day you kinda feel a little bit off!
Q: Is the rest of the day really off or is that just kinda how you were pre-framed?
What's interesting about RAS receptors is that, once we focus on them, the brain starts to look for those things above everything else…
The great news is that we have a lot of control over *WHAT* we focus on.
I was talking with my wife ('cause I teach her a lot of the things I learn to make sure I know them)...
I was like, “Did you ever notice how when we bought our car, we suddenly are seeing that car all over the road?”
(We got this new car, it's like a family car, family SUV 'cause we've got three kids.)
She's like, “yeah!”
I was like, “I learned why! It's because we have these things called the RAS receptors and whatever we put our attention on we start seeing in the world.”
.And so that brings me on to another way I like to prepare…
SEE YOUR FUTURE
Before I go on stage, I make sure that I’m visualizing:
Before the last OfferMind, the way that I prepared relied heavily on visualization.
WINNING THE MIND GAME
There’s a fascinating study around the concept of visualization…
They hooked up an Olympian to a whole bunch of brain sensors and said:
"Okay, Olympian, go do your event."
The Olympian ran around the track (or did whatever their event was) while their brain waves were tracked.
After they’d relaxed, the same athlete was sat in a chair, hooked back up to sensors, and asked to close their eyes to imagine doing the same event.
NOW HERE’S THE FASCINATING BIT…
There was zero difference in the brain scans between the real and imagined events.
The brain didn't know that the imagined event was NOT real.
So that’s one of the reasons why pretending, play, visualization, setting goals and thinking about where you're going to be in the future are very powerful tools.
This was my second OfferMind, but I have mentally visited the stage hundreds of times by the time the event came around.
Do you understand that?
That's a BIG principle - it's a huge concept to understand.
The same thing was true with:
...I think about it and visualize it happening waaay before the actual event!
It's the reason why obsession is practically required for you to succeed.
When people say, “Have life balance…”
What the freak is life balance? I don't know what they’re talking about. I'm just gonna be obsessed!
I'm gonna think about it mentally, and in my head, I'm gonna visualize outcomes!
I'm not gonna lie... until I started learning about some of these studies, I thought this stuff was woo-woo crap!
But several years ago, I started realizing like, "Oh my gosh, if I just think about my future, I can help make it happen."
It's not like the book The Secret where it’s like, "I'm gonna have a $1,000 show up in the mail today."
It's NOT like that.
But when you sit down, and you're actually running the event in your mind - things start to happen the way that you see them
There's a reason I started dreaming in the ClickFunnels editor after I started working for ClickFunnels…
Because funnels were so ingrained in my head; when Russell was like, "Hey Dude, I need this funnel in the next two hours."
BOOM!
I knew that play because I had run that play in my head so many times.
Visualization is crazy powerful.
The brain fires the exact same as if you were actually doing it, your head doesn’t know the difference.
I TALK TO MYSELF
Here's a little vulnerability...
I don't know what the deal is with warm showers in the morning, but I start talking to myself.
I totally monologue and think about being on stage.
I remember growing up (when I was a late teen), I thought about being on stage A LOT.
There’d be times when standing in the kitchen late at night, I’d freaking monologue in my head like crazy.
This is something that's been very practiced in my head and my brain for such a long time.
I didn't really realize that until I started learning these other studies, and I was like: "Oh, crap, I've been preparing for this far more than I realized."
And there's a caveat to it... there's another side of the coin…
THE ‘BIG’ BUT...
If you have a natural tendency to be fearful, you gotta cut that crap out. You are literally creating a self-manifesting future.
It's NOT that you have to be the other side. all emotionless and iron steel, but your thoughts truly do matter.
...I have visualized what it's gonna be like when they go: "Please, welcome to the stage, Mr. Steve Larsen."
Everyone yells … the bass starts pumping and I see myself running across the stage with the lights strobing.
I visualize that A LOT.
It sounds conceited, but that's NOT what I'm saying.
I'm saying…
I've run my speech in my head a lot of times to train my RAS receptors.
CHOOSING HOW TO SPEAK ON STAGE
I make sure that how I wake up, (especially in the weeks leading up to an event that's gonna be really big and intense for me), is a conscious choice…
I wake up and I just choose that it's gonna be an awesome day.
It's as simple as that…
My RAS receptors are looking for ‘the awesome’ in the day and NOT the curve balls that are bound to happen.
I definitely choose my RAS receptor focus by deciding:
This stuff sounds cheesy, and I'm not gonna lie, I thought it was some fluffy crap until I started doing it.
Then I was like, DANG! *THIS STUFF WORKS*
I watched Russell execute things when he was like, "Duh, I'm not gonna lie. I really could use a nap right now."
He would sit back and he would take a moment to feel his feeling and then choose the outcome.
I am NOT my feelings and neither are you.
Sooo…
#1: I practice focusing my Ras receptors
#2: I do A LOT of brain practice and visualization.
...which means it has - my brain doesn't know the difference!
I visualize it a lot, and it’s something I did a lot naturally as a kid without realizing the impact it would have.
If you could be a fly on the wall of my office, sometimes you’d see me put my headphones on and click into this weird mode where I’ll forget where I am... and do my event inside of my head.
… it's kind of a form of meditation - (which brings me to point #3 ).
#3: Meditation
I wanted to share the actual meditation device that I use - 'cause a lot of you have asked.
It's NOT part of my routine to do it every day, but especially as events come up, I definitely meditate far more than any other time.
There's a thing that I use called Muse, (and here's a little product placement 😉)...
It's this headband that goes around the front of your head, and once you put it on it measures your brain signals in real-time to let you know if you are getting off course with your meditation.
So, it helps guide your meditation!
... it's really cool.
So if I start losing focus on my meditation, it actually simulates a rainstorm - it's like you're in a rainforest.
And if you start to get away from meditation it increases the tropical storm in your headphones so you know to come back.
And when you come back, the rain stops and it becomes peaceful with these birds...
...it literally trained me how to meditate.
'Cause, I'm not gonna lie… I kinda made fun of meditation for a while too 😬
But in order for me to have a clear focused head, I need to meditate...
I use this headset when I travel too and I meditate sitting in the chair in my hotel room.
I also have other practices that help me to manage my state:
I want to stay relaxed and focused on the weeks leading up to an event.
MY SPEECH PREPARATION SOUNDTRACK
Music is a huge part of my life.
In the time preparing for the event, I focus heavily on music that has very few words.
I want ‘my own thoughts’ to be what goes through my head.
In the day leading up to the event, literally 24 hours ahead of time, I listen to a lot more aggressive styled music.
Some of you guys asked for those playlists - I don't know if I'm gonna share some of those playlists with you, but I go to war in my head.
I think about becoming ‘Steve’.
A lot of things I'm doing right now are pretty rare, and I know that.
At the Last Funnel Hacking live, a lot of people wanted to come say hi, and I appreciate that…
But I started getting followed around the hotel and pitched at the urinals.
People were following Colton and I jogged around the whole event, and it got weird.
I'm totally down with saying ‘Hi,’ and shaking hands and ‘let's take a picture,’ whatever…
But people were physically grabbing me and taking me places, and it got really weird.
The bubble was crossed many times and it got awkward.
Colton and I would run around Funnel Hacking Live to avoid people and that's why we were missing deadlines.
We were moving so that we wouldn’t get stopped.
...and it felt awkward 'cause I wanted to say ‘hi’ because I wanted to say, "Thanks for following."
But I couldn't get away.
I'm fine with that, as long as I can pull a ripcord and be like, "Okay, I gotta go get ready for this now," but people weren't letting me go anywhere.
So, like, "Hey, I gotta go here, I need to get backstage," or "I have to go to the bathroom," or whatever might be.
But for the first time, last year's Funnel Hacking Live was really aggressive.
I think it was because of the One Funnel Away Challenge.
And I get it.
It'll happen to you if you choose to publish and do what I tell you to do.
But first, it was like 100 million X the intensity of the year before.
I've NOT developed that part of me… or learned how to handle that pressure yet.
(but I'll keep working on it.)
So I texted Dave Woodward and said, "Dude, can you come help me?
I don't wanna be rude, but I really have to get out of here, but people wanna say hi, and I know that I've helped them.”
... and so it was weird and very conflicting for me.
Dave came and he grabbed me and he brought me backstage to a green room, and I shut the door.
I was supposed to go on stage for my speech in an hour, and Dave was like, "Dude, you're white as a ghost. You've never had that happen before, have you?"
I was like, "No. No."
At that moment, I was Steven. I was a little bit nervous and kinda freaked out a little bit.
A lot of my kid and my teenage tendencies to retract, pull in and pull back were happening... and I was aware of that.
It was like, "I can't... Steve, where are you, man? You're going on stage soon, man."
I'm telling you this because this is a trick that I've learned.
Todd Herman has a book, Alter Ego, and I’ve 100% created one for a lot of stage stuff.
(I don't think I've told you guys the story…)
But I did planks and push-ups...
I did a lot of push-ups, sit-ups, and planks for the next hour, listening to David Goggins swear at me.
I closed the door, shut off all the lights, I needed no input. I needed to decrease the inputs as much as possible…
I'm listening to David Goggins swear at me, and about 15 minutes beforehand, Steve showed up, and I was like, "Boom! Let's rock this."
They put the headset on me and I went out, and it was an awesome impactful speech.
So anyways...
I go to war in my head
STEVE VERSUS STEPHEN
One of the reasons I listen to the music I do is because that's one of the ways I conjure *STEVE*
I'm NOT always *STEVE*... but I think people expect me to be.
I've had a few people, locally at grocery stores, walk up to me and they're like, "Oh my gosh!"
And I can feel their eyes...
They think I'm gonna be like, "Boom! Wow! Yeah!"
They think I'm *that way* ALL the time.
It's just a thing that I've learned in order for me to keep my message across.
I know I talk a lot - and we need a pattern interrupt sometimes 😉
Funny enough…
...were three things I never planned on being this big massive thing, and now, it's kind of what I'm known for. 😂
Anyway, the major point is that…
I take a moment to go to war in my head.
Before I go on stage (or anything like that), I think about…
And suddenly, it's really easy for *STEVE* to come out.
It's real easy for me to be my true self and not retract as I used to as a teenager and as a young kid.
Anyway, I hope that this makes sense...
This might be a different episode than you were expecting?
It's not about slides, it’s about how I mentally make sure that I'm fit and ready to rock?
PUBLIC SPEAKING ADVICE LARSEN STYLEE
People are fighting for what they think they should be doing in their lives and they're trusting me with that. I take that very seriously.
In my office…
A while ago, I learned from a really awesome company that:
When you don't eat, a hormone is released in your brain that increases your mental focus.
And when I went to my first Funnel Hacking Live, there were actually times when I didn't eat.
I was hungry, but they believe it's because you needed to go hunt down your food and so you need a higher level of focus.
...you see what I'm saying?
I really wanted to get the most I could out of that first Funnel Hacking Live and so there were times where I didn't eat for quite a while.
I was starving, but that doesn't mean I need to eat, right? That just means I'm hungry.
I'm NOT my feelings
... and so I sat back…
… and you can feel it happening.
*Massive Levels of Mental Clarity*
You’re hungry, but you’ve got that fighting edge.
There are times when I am creating slides and stuff like that, where I will do kind of strategic "let's get crazy mental focused" style fasting.
Anyway, there’s A LOT of stuff in my office that I use to prepare.
SPEECH PREPARATION - FAST RECAP
Play every little detail using all the five senses.
Go into that scenario and run it top to bottom in your head as many times as you can.
In fact, I heard a really awesome athlete say that"Your practice should be so intense that the game seems easy."
He said:
"By the time you actually get to your event, the amount of work that it's taken behind the scenes to get there makes what you're doing seem really easy.”
The practice is way harder than the actual event.
I was like, "That's a really good principle."
I visualize a lot.
When I wake up, I take a moment to think about the event:
I go through a lot of that stuff.
It's a massive, massive cornerstone of all this.
There’s A LOT of little tricks you can use to make sure that you’re on your A-game.
Next year's OfferMind is actually going to be in San Diego in the same room as my first Funnel Hacking Live!
It’s a massive full circle, I’m so excited for it.
We actually just had the contract signed which is exciting - it’ll be mid-September 2020 - I'll make sure the dates go out.
So anyway, guys thanks for following the journey, and those of you who are coming next year, go grab your ticket and go get rich!
So, several years ago, I walked by a stage in a basketball stadium.
It was my college campus and I was deeply concerned with what I wanted to do in my life.
For some reason, I looked at the stage and thought, "Huh, one day I wanna be on stage. I wanna be an entrepreneur and I wanna buy and sell companies."
Well, while the last one hasn't happened ... *YET* “Muahaha…” stage and entrepreneurship have.
And as my business has grown and my message has spread, a frequent question I'm asked is, "Steve, what stage will you be on next?"
Now I totally get that this feels, maybe, a little conceited here...
But considering my childhood fear of speaking up, being heard, extreme lack of self-confidence, and getting in front of people, back in my growing up days, I feel satisfied.
I thought I'd tell you where I'll be in the world coming up.
And funny enough, just literally go over to seestevelive.com, and it'll forward you to the next place.
I love stage and it's one of my BIGGEST things to look forward to in my current role in my business.
From little 10 person masterminds all the way to gigantic 5000 person events - from free seats to paid events…
Events have always been one of the ways I can deliver the MOST value and get the greatest “AHA’s” in the shortest amount of time.
Just come say hi, and go over to seestevelive.com.
Anyone can make extra money on the side.
But the moment you get serious about having a big impact on others, you'll be forced to deal with a lot of your own skeletons in the closet…
I love my childhood, but just like anybody, there's a lot of garbage which can come from things that were even unintentional.
So this episode’s a little bit different.
Recently, I took a five-mile walk around where I grew up, I wanted to face some skeletons in the closet to help me move forward.
You have to will your future into existence.
… but that’s waaay harder to do if you’re still hiding from your past!
BECOMING AN ENTREPRENEUR…
Oftentimes, we think that if we leave, go somewhere, or sacrifice time to go and build something, we'll miss out on things.
But it's just not the case.
I walked through my childhood haunts and it's pretty much exactly the same when I was last here.
And so you're NOT really missing out on anything by choosing to go sacrifice some…
... in order to create the life that you really want!
You'll realize that ‘the sacrifices’ aren't really sacrifices at all.
So with that, let's cue the ghosts; it’s gonna be a little bit raw.
VISITING WITH SKELETONS
I grew up in this house…
...and I’m walking down memory lane here.
I was at a Russell Brunson event in Denver, (which is where I grew up), and on the first day, I just couldn't get an idea out of my head.
I was like, " I gotta go walk around where I used to live."
It was an hour's drive, so I jump in an Uber and did some filming…
I'm the eldest of six kids…
When I was growing up, we weren't poor.
My dad was an executive at IBM most of my childhood and he started two companies and ran them.
I watched him be an entrepreneur; he changed my life, and obviously, my mom did too, of course - she gave me life.
I love my parents and my family - they are amazing; they taught me so many things.
All those yard stories I tell you about - the yard’s behind that house.
All the times where we ran from golf course rangers...
… the golf course on the other side of the house across the road.
My family doesn't live here anymore….
I knocked on the door here and I was like, "Hey, I used to live in this house."
That's probably weird... but from age 5 to 20, I lived in this house.
During my late teen years, I was in and out, but I officially left the when I was 20.
DOCUMENTING THE JOURNEY
One of the purposes of Sales Funnel Radio was to do something kinda ballsy - I wanted to leave my job and document all the aspects…
… and Sales Funnel Radio has been an awesome platform.
As you grow up, there's a whole bunch of stuff that happens to you, and one of the purposes, (like I said), of Sales Funnel Radio, is to document the journey.
And over the last 3-6 months, something different is going on for me, so I want to document that too!
And so, this is me documenting the garbage that I've been trying to fix… and WHY it’s sooo important for my success.
FACING GHOSTS
I believe anyone can make money in this game, but there's a certain spot you hit where you stop and you can't go any further into the future until you find some way to shake hands with your past.
...and that's what I'm trying to do.
A lot of you guys have reached out and been like, "Steven, take more time for yourself."
I actually take more time for myself than you might realize or know that I do, and it’s because of systems and processes - I've gotten good at them.
I haven't built a funnel since November of 2018
I’ve maybe built a single squeeze page or something like that…
But for the most part, I haven't touched my own funnels. I don't do much on my podcast episodes anymore.
I have incredible teams and incredible funnel builders - they’re awesome.
Q: So what it has allowed me to do?
A: Let me tell you...
I've never been able to go spend time on myself because I've always been in a job.
I've always had to work, work for somebody else.
I've worked in...
... I did all kinds of stuff.
I had 16 jobs by the time I left home
(... a lot of side stories there)
But here’s the point…
If you don't learn to make money for the sake of making more money in general, do it for the hidden benefit of being able to spend money and time on you.
Because I just want to share a pattern that I'm noticing.
If you’re feeling stuck, you need to find some way to shake the hands of your past
… and, frankly, you may not enjoy it.
I'm not saying that my past is super dark, but there's a lot more dark than I've ever let on…
… which is super challenging.
There was a lot of death when I was growing up - there was some intense crap that went down.
ARE YOU A STUDENT OF EXCEPTIONS?
I grew up in Suburbia and which was great.
It's not like I was fearing for my life, it’s wasn’t like it was The Bronx or anything…
But any childhood has something inside of it, usually, and I'm kind of a student of exceptions...
There's a lot of stuff that I've done in my life that isn't the norm.
… and that was a pattern I started exhibiting as I was growing up.
I almost got kicked out of high school for selling pens.
If you guys know the Columbine shooting, that's right over there - my wife and her siblings went to college there.
I went to their rival high school, which is just a mile up that direction
A lot of things happened, and …
Trying to figure out ways to be okay with ‘where you've been,’ for some reason, is super important for where you're trying to go.
MONEY AND GROWTH
A low month for me now is 100 grand.
...and please don't feel weird about that - as I said, I'm just documenting.
We’re only halfway through the month and we’ve almost hit 200 grand.
I'm helping people, lives are changing, it's profitable and everything's going the way it's supposed to go.
There have been ample times when it's NOT been that way… and you all know those stories.
But I've always wondered what you would spend your time when you’re able to make enough cash to buy back your time?
Well, one of the most natural things that you go spend your time on when you start buying some of it back is working on yourself.
Right now...
I'm doing all kinds of stuff to help my longevity - 'cause I'm realizing the mission that I'm on is larger than me, and it's an honor to be able to go do this stuff.
I really believe that…
In order for you to move forward, you really need to find a way to shake hands with the past and stare those devils in the face.
You don't have to hug them... but give them a nice, enthusiastic high five.
You have to like everything that happened but you'll find that it's so much easier to face the future and do the things that I'm teaching you how to do.
The content that I give away is not normal, I know that - I teach you stuff that most people charge for.
I'm trying to help you make money, but so much has to happen inside your head if you're really trying to make this a career.
If you're gonna be a leader, you gotta have your head on.
And there are increasing levels of self-discovery and personal development that I've been going through…
A few weeks ago, I told my wife, "Man, I can feel like I’m being required to level up."
… it was scary!
And this happens every three months now!
FACE YOUR FEAR!
Sometimes people reach out and ask:
DUH!
UH - HUH!
YEP!
#FACT: EVERYONE goes through that - there's no one who doesn't.
Funnily enough, I can teach you the formulas that cause cash, and you can make it without going in any of this stuff, but there comes a spot where you have to go and finally say, "You know, I got to work on me."
.
The whole point of this episode is:
Don't try to hide from stuff in your past that keeps nagging at you.
You know what I'm talking about when I say that 😉
I don't know your past, but I do know there's probably something there.
And if this prompts you and you're like, "Oh, crap. I got to work on these things."
*DON’T HIDE FROM THEM*
YOUR ATTRACTIVE CHARACTER MAY NOT BE WHAT YOU THINK...
You'll find that a lot of the things that you weren't amazing at are the very reasons why you become follow-able online.
...and I was getting picked on a lot in high school.
This is NOT a pity party - I just want to illustrate a point.
One day I was walking through the hall and I was like, "Man, I'm freaking sick of this, I'm gonna lose weight"
I started lifting every day, and I lost 45 pounds nine months later.
And I guarantee, it's highly unlikely that you're listening to Sales Funnel Radio and you don’t have some of those things in your own past, right?
We entrepreneurs tend to enjoy the triumph, and we tend to enjoy the journey as much as the end prize
...which, on the outside, can look really weird to a lot of people.
Don't apologize for that.
Just understand that you also don't need everyone to like what you do or agree with it.
CONTROL YOUR DEMONS OR BE CONTROLLED
As I walked around, I listened to music for some state control because some things are a little bit triggering for me still.
I once heard Tony Robbins say he’s thankful for his history, and he's got a crazy history…
My history is awesome compared to Tony Robbin's history - it's nothing like his at all.
But I thought it was really cool when he said that he's thankful for his history because of what it turned him into.
As I was driving over here in this Uber, I was sitting in the back seat, and I was trying not to cry.
I was like, "Man I don't know if I wanna burn the house down or hug it?"
It's not like things were being imposed on me, but there's a lot of crap that can go on.
I have a very hyperactive, observant noggin... and, for quite a while, it was just really hard to own me.
A SOLID SENSE OF SELF
One of the best things you could ever go to do in your entire life is to develop a solid sense of self, and that's what my wife and I have been focusing on like crazy.
In order to do that, we've had to confront some beasts in the closet and actually shake hands with some personal devils that not a lot of people actually want to confront.
It's hard enough for people to be honest about the fact that they have things in the closet that…
Man, those are some of the best gifts you could ever give to an audience - EVER.
It's one thing to become aware of those triggers, and it's another to look at them, start to pull them apart and willingly dive back into them to make peace.
USE YOUR HEAD...
When I was 18 years old, I used to longboard down this road barefoot.
My brother would follow behind me in a car, and I would go 45 miles an hour down this road.
We watching this cool TV show where these guys would study some martial arts, and this dude kept getting choked out…
So they tied a rope to his head, tied it to a car in neutral, and he pulled the car with his head.
We were like, "Oh my gosh...”
I had this little Volkswagen Jetta, and we tied a rope to our heads and pulled the car with people in it - it wasn’t easy!
We had some beefy necks after that one.
MAKE PEACE WITH YOUR PAST
Make peace with the past, (and again, you may NOT like it), but do it in a way that you make enough peace that you can move forward, and say:
"Hello future, that I can totally have. All the stuff that I'm learning from Steve Larsen podcasts and all the stuff that he does, (or whoever it is that you're following), I can go do all this.”
The thing that most holds people back is NOT confronting those things in their past which are hard.
And usually that's why people are self-medicating...
When you find people here who usually have some kind of addiction, don't look at them and be like, "I would never have that kind of addiction."
Man, that person might be going through some crazy stuff, and their way of ‘numbing out’ is their addiction.
And if you have stuff in your past, look around in your life and you'll start to notice that you've been numbing out too.
So ask yourself…
...that's my challenge to you!
ENTREPRENEUR MOTIVATION
#1: Focus On Revenue - become a highly, money motivated Capitalist Pig, but remember that…
The intent is what matters
….so what's you're intent?
If that's why you wanna get rich, I have a bit of an issue with that!
That's different, that's okay! I'm totally for it.
Then you’re in the right space and you’re following the right guy - that’s what I’m all about here.
If you’ve got stuff from the past, find a way to give it an enthusiastic high five... and keep moving forward.
MY KEY TAKEAWAYS
***Side Note
*Do not walk five miles in dress shoes*
Holy crap, my feet were wrecked! Five miles is not that far, but in dress shoes…
I got blisters on my feet!
So…
Other than learning that dress shoes are as uncomfortable as hell, I had two major realizations as I walked around:
#1: When you're a kid your perception is different.
You're small, physically, and as I'm walking around I'm like, “This is NOT as big as I remember.”
I went back to my high school and elementary school.
My middle school is super far, so I wasn’t gonna walk all the way over there.
But anyway…
Our perceptions of how things were in the past are often not how they really are - it's just our perception of it.
So besides the fact that things are NOT exactly how I remember, (which is actually really cool and freeing in some things), the second thing I've noticed is that…
#2: This is largely the exact same place.
My family moved here 26 years ago when I was five years old.
And now, there's been a little construction and the trees are a little bigger, but besides that, everything is pretty much the same.
I left the area for two years on a mission for my church. And when I came back, I assumed that...
...and that just wasn't the case.
It was eerie to me how much the exact same everything still was as when I left.
So my takeaway from this (and it’s actually been healing in some regard), is …
Our pasts will often look at us and they have a very convincing beckoning cal and tight grip on our current psyche and how we decide to behave in the present with our goals, what we go for, and the things we moving towards.
But if you actually go back to where some things may have happened..
... or whatever it is.
Most human beings on this planet have something that was kind of crazy in their past.
If it's a bad memory, and you think, "Oh my gosh, that was terrible and everything. That was crazy."
(And I’m not saying it wasn't)
... but if you go back and you start looking at it, (which I'm doing right now)...
I'm like, "Huh. That was speaking louder in my head than it needed to be".
Now I realize that I can be like, "Bring it on!"
I know this is different to what I usually talk about, but I wanted to talk more about what's going on personally.
I talk about the cash, which is great... and everyone should be, in my opinion, highly money motivated with great intent for the right reasons…
#HelpPeopleCreateValue
But there's so much mental stuff (when you start getting serious about the game), that you gotta start working through it.
And for me, walking around my old haunts has helped me to:
I'm NOT trying to have you open up a can of skeletons and get vulnerable in unhelpful ways.
However, I am trying to be vulnerable to document some of the things that I've been going through... 'cause they've been very real for me.
...especially the last three to six months.
It's like somebody opened up skeleton cans and just dumped them all over my head.
I was like, "Oh my gosh, I gotta go deal with those junk before I can actually move forward and move on".
I wouldn't recommend going after all these things at once, just choose one or two at a time and start going after them in order to make peace with your past.
#GetRichGive Back.
Alright!
*YOU* reading this right now!
You're in one of two scenarios...
Either…
You're currently selling a product and you've got a slick sales funnel and traffic...
There are ads and you have content, bringing in new customers. You have upsells, downsells, and phone sales.
You've almost automated it, making money while doing everyday things.
Either that's all set up and going…
OR…
The second option is you don't have any of that, and you're still trying to make this work and tie all of these pieces together.
If you want my help, just go to capitalistcoaching.com and see where you can get started.
It took me a long time to get the skills for all this to get moving…
... there's A LOT.
And the path to move forward is different for each person.
So I created capitalistcoaching.com for you to check out where *you* need to start.
Whether you're just starting out with…
OR…
If you're like one of our BIG corporate clients who just need to add more revenue and scale your offer, go to capitalistcoaching.com.
I don't really believe in shortcuts, but I do know you can speed up the path on the journey.
Figure out the BEST place to start by going to capitalistcoaching.com now.
You can publish the exact same content on multiple platforms and get completely different reactions from your audience. Why?!
I really don't read that many books!
I have a different method of learning - that’s kinda controversial… and a few people have gotten a little fussy with me about it.
Here’s what went down... (and it’s kinda funny!)
A little while ago, I was talking about a book that I had consumed.
I was like, "Hey, I read this book."
What I meant was that I’d listened to the book.
Then someone reached out and said, "Stephen, did you actually read the book or did you just listen to it?"
I was like, "Who the freak cares?"
So I wanted to address that question... because it raises a few interesting points that can seem, at first glance, kinda opposing … 😉
I want to let you know...
But first, let’s start with WHY I don’t read that much...
HUNTING ANSWERS
I'm NOT a slow reader, but it's NOT abnormal for me to spend two to three months reading a book.
...and maybe you're like me, but I'll read a paragraph and often, I’ll get distracted by thoughts...
I'll sit back and ask:
"How does this plug into my framework? Does it fit here or there?"
The question I'm asking is:
“Is this TRUTH?”
… just because it's in a book doesn't mean that it's true, right?
I’ll go off on these mental tangents… and that can take A LONG TIME...
...so because of that, sometimes, I just want to absorb the main ideas from a book and so I’ll just go with the audio version.
Back in the day, when I first started this game, I read more books cover to cover, but now that I've read enough of them, I focus more on…
... and that's what guides my education.
I'm more hunting answers rather than trying to consume and master all the content.
I want the information faster and I wanna know the key points quicker.
I can listen to books at 2 x - 3x speed, and be like:
"Oh my gosh, key point. How does it relate to the framework I know causes success? BAM.
You know what? I thought that was a cool idea, but I actually don't think it works. It's an attractive idea, but that doesn't mean it's right.’
Okay, let's NOT insert that idea into the framework…”
I think A LOT of people, feel weird about the fact that they're listening to a book, instead of reading it.
I've heard many people apologize by saying, "Well, I didn't read the book, I just listened to it."
*THAT’S STUPID*
...seriously, who cares?
It doesn't matter! I consumed the book, (let's call it that).
STOP GETTING HUNG UP!
If you're like me, and you like listening to books, stop apologizing for that.
It doesn't matter! Who cares, okay?
Yes, I listen to books. I listen to books far more than I read them.
I know some people will be like, "Well, you have to read the book to take in the information! "
But that’s NOT TRUE
In my head, it’s like the movie Beautiful Mind...
I can close my eyes and see my framework and where it plugs into all the frameworks of my favorite funnels.
I can see all the follow-up sequences and all the promo sequences.
It's drawn out in my mind.
One of the reasons I use my whiteboard like crazy is 'cause drawing is how I learn.
Now, let's get historical here…
CONTENT MARKETING BC
Back 2000 years ago, a lot of the time, Dads were big storytellers, and people would listen to their grandparents and their fathers.
Q: And how was information passed?
A: By speech.
I can guarantee that none of the kids were sitting around going, "Dad did you read that in a book ...or did you just hear that from grandpa?"
… you know what I mean?
Just because the method of passing on knowledge has changed doesn't mean that the knowledge is bad.
Thousands of years ago, orators, (people who got up and spoke) were the teachers...
There weren't many books.
It's NOT like they were over at the printing press - they were handwriting that stuff, man.
No one was sitting around saying, "I'm sorry, I don’t believe you unless it’s handwritten with a quill on a scroll!”
Too many times we get caught up on the whole method of information delivery.
Don't apologize for the medium that you learn from the best.
HOW I LEARN…
I listen to audio...
I’d rather download a program and listen to it while I'm going about my day than sit down.
Sometimes, I need to pace around.
However, just to get contradictory here, there is a subconscious power of a platform that you can utilize to boost *COUGH* your ‘authority’...
And that is the second point I wanted to make in this episode.
BOOSTING YOUR ‘A- WORD’ WITH CONTENT MARKETING
One of the biggest questions I get asked is, "Stephen, how do you become an authority?"
I'm like, "Man, I don't freaking know?"
In fact, I was talking to Stacey Martino, an amazing relationship expert, at the Unlock the Secrets Event.
I was like, “... sometimes I don't know whether to burn my skeletons in the closet 'cause I hate 'em or hug 'em because of what they’ve made me?”
I'm NOT talking about secrets and stuff, it’s just the past and some level of crazy experiences that we go through the further we get…
… and not just the entrepreneur path.
Any path will require you to kinda purge yourself and keep getting better.
I was telling Stacey...
I never tried to be an authority.
I just did what Russell said, (which was to start publishing), and I accidentally got in a little bit of limelight.
… but *that's the lesson*
I could just talk to someone on a street corner and they might be, “Yeah, that’s interesting, and who are you???…”
BUT...
A podcast has waaay MORE authority with the same freaking info.
Think about it!
Being seen on certain platforms generally increases your status...
People are like:
The medium that you consume information from vastly affects how the audience perceives the information. The medium is a pre-frame for the information.
If I'm gonna go scroll through Instagram, I treat that information differently.
Every platform has a different context:
There's a context behind each platform!
UNLOCK YOUR CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY
I started thinking about this subject during the Unlock The Secrets event.
(A brilliant event by the way)
It was 3 days, literally, deep-diving into Russell's 3 books and teaching (in more depth), how to do what was in the book.
In fact, a lot of times, when I first started attending Russell's Inner Circle meetings, (not as a member… this was years ago, when I just was sitting on the side, just kind of listening and observing)...
I was shocked to find out a significant percentage of the room had NEVER read Russell's books, but we're in, (at that time) his $25,000 Mastermind, (which went to $50,000).
I've told that to people in the past, and they were like, "What? That’s psychos, that’s crazy!"
But ask yourself this... “Is it REALLY crazy?”
Obviously, you get waaay more from a mastermind than the book itself...
However, a lot of times, Russell would be teaching some of the very concepts and principles from the book to his Mastermind.
It doesn't matter if people:
The BIG lessons are:
#1: Who freaking cares if you've been reading or listening to books.
#2: Understand the other side of that coin, and know like, "Oh my gosh, the mediums that I choose to publish on are actually affecting my audience.” #STATUS
It's funny because people ask, "Stephen, you haven't written your book yet?"
It’s funny, ‘cause I'm saying the same things that are gonna be in my book in my podcast…
There’ll be more detail, clarity and refinement… but basically, it’ll be the same stuff!
WHERE YOU DELIVER MATTERS
What's interesting is when you're chatting with somebody and they share something they’ve learned, and you're like, “Really?”
And they're like, "Yeah, yeah, I read it in this interesting book."
Q: What do usually happens?
A: It satiates the question.
You think, "Oh, they've read it in a book, therefore it's probably good. Therefore, it's likely to be true.”
There's a HUGE lesson, right there…
The method of content delivery does carry authority.
For example:
I could give the exact same speech face to face to someone on the street that I gave at Funnel Hacking Live
...and they'd be like, "Oh that's really interesting."
But for some reason, put me on a stage with the exact same speech…
… and there's MORE Authority.
People will trust what I say far more quickly
There's an increased speed of trust and affinity just from just being on a stage.
If I take that same speech and put in a book, “Whoa!”
For some reason, our brains look at content delivered in a book and go, "Oh my gosh, look at that, this person is an expert... "
So, I’ll say it again…
The method of the information delivery matters.
YOUR CONTENT MARKETING PLAN
Maybe you consume my content on…
...or wherever, (we put it all over the place).
However, if you watch me, I know that MORE authority comes across in a video than if you’re listening to me on the podcast.
... and that's okay, we all consume differently.
But I know that’s the case… and that's fascinating!
It's the reason why when you say, “I listened to a book,” instead of, “I read a book,” people will try to discredit the fact that you read the book.
“Well, you didn't actually read the book…!!!”
What they're really saying is, “I heard it from a higher authority!”
...even though it's the same freaking information.
It’s so funny!
... whether you're B2B or B2C; it doesn't matter...
The medium you choose is a pre-frame for how you’re perceived.
I know people who are like, "I'm NOT gonna go on that platform because the context of that platform would not do well for the information I'm giving!"
I get it.
… which is why there's A LOT that I can't or will not share on a podcast.
People reach out and say, "Stephen you give so much stuff on your podcast. What else can possibly be in your courses?"
#TonsMore.
There's A LOT more helpful stuff in my courses ...because the context of the platform allows me to do more.
For example:
The context of OfferMind allows me to change…
Information is just information, but the way you choose to develop your content with the platform you put it on vastly affects how people are gonna perceive and consume it.
WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN WHERE YOU GET YOUR CONTENT?
… dropping gold nuggets here 🔥
Can you imagine if you treated every one of my podcast episodes like you were sitting in an audience watching me speak?
You would treat the episode with far more affinity and far more, (I hate using the word), *authority*...
At Unlock The Secrets, I was sitting dead center in very front row, and someone said:
"You're taking notes, Stephen?"
I was like, "Yeah, duh... Russell Brunson's speaking!"
"But you sat next to him..."
"That doesn't mean that I’ve' stopped learning from him."
There's a reason why Russell continues to cite Brandon and Kaelin Poulin, Alex Hormozi, and myself as success stories, I try to be his best student, which means…
One of my tricks is learning for two.
Learning for two was a theme of this show probably 200 episodes ago.
HOW NOT WHERE…
It's the way I treat the things that I learn that’s sooo powerful...
Just because I'm learning from someone face-to-face versus on a stage does NOT mean I should treat it differently!
… but people have a tendency to do justthat.
*DON’T*
YOUR MISSION
Go find the one, the two, the three people that you wanna keep following who will teach you a skill set that you know you need, (not things you're getting distracted with)…
And anytime time you’re listening to them speak, act like they're on a stage.
Anytime they speak, act like you paid $100,000 for a one-day consultation.
I used to charge 35 grand for a day's consultation and the waiting list was more than I actually just had time to do, so I don't do it anymore.
It was funny how differently someone treated the exact same information because of the context.
Let me give you an example:
When I left ClickFunnels and I wanted to join the Inner Circle, I was like, "Dude, Russell, let me pay full price."
He was like, "Oh, man you don't have to... "
I said, "No, no, no, no. It's because I need to treat the information like I paid money to be in it."
I also got charged an extra five grand this last year to be in the 2 Comma Club X program on top of my normal Inner Circle fee, which was funny because I'm one of the coaches.
I was like, "Ah, dude, you're paying your fee.”
If I don't feel a personal investment, if I don't allow myself somehow to change state with it, I will NOT treat that information how I need to treat it.
DO WHAT WORKS
It doesn’t matter if you read the book or listen to the audio…
Who the freak cares????
What matters is how I treat the information.
When I listen to books…
...I have tons of text message screenshots 😂
The last book I actually physically read was (I think) David Goggin's book, 'Can't Hurt Me,' which is so good.
(Don't listen to it if words offend you 😉)
When people are like. "Well, Stephen I'm not publishing yet," I get it.
I didn't want to either.
But one of the reasons why it's so powerful to publish is because…
People will treat the exact same message differently just by you changing the medium that you deliver the message on.
… that’s why we pump out so much content.
One of the BIGGEST reasons is... ( and I hate saying it) *AUTHORITY*
The medium you choose is a pre-frame for how you’re perceived.
… you can shout your message on a street corner, and the chances are that people will think you’re CRAZY, but increase the staus of WHERE you place your content…
...and you also increase the status of your message!
COMING FULL CIRCLE
Finally, *Some Exciting News*…
A few days ago, I told Russell:
"Dude, good news, man. For 2020, we have the very room that the 2026 Funnel Hacking Live was in”
Funnel Hacking Live 2016 was my very first Funnel Hacking Live.
It's the one where:
I was like, "Let's go full circle."
It'll be September 2020, I don't like giant events cause I tend to learn a little bit less and the speakers can't go as deep…
So it will probably be a 1000-person event.
If you didn't get a chance to come this last year, we'd love to have you next year.
Go to offermind.com, we're making it so that you can grab tickets year-round - so you can plan and stuff like that.
AH, YEAH!
Hey, wish you could geek out with other Real Funnel Builders and even ask questions while I build Funnels Live?
Ah-oh…
*Wish Granted*
Watch and learn funnel building as I document my process in my funnel strategy group.
It's FREE!
Just go to the scienceofselling.online and join NOW.
When you get down to the core of it, the list of roles Marketing owns is actually quite small. Powerful, but short.
Recently my revenue took another BIG jump, but funnily enough, I'm doing less of the things that MOST people spend ALL their time doing (e.g. funnel building and posting on social media)...
So I started thinking about why this happened?
And it all came down to a very interesting principle that enabled me to come 2nd in an affiliate competition (that I didn’t even know was going on)!
Here’s how it happened…
HOW TO BE A MARKETER
A few months ago, ClickFunnels was doing this BIG promotion for the One Funnel Away Challenge.
I promote with the One Funnel Away routinely because I think everyone should go for it.
Besides ClickFunnels itself, the OFA challenge has probably been one of the most life-changing things that ClickFunnels EVER put out - so I talk about it A LOT...
Well, I didn't realize that my launch of makeaffiliatesgreatagain.com happened to coincide with the exact time when ClickFunnels was saying:
"Hey, we got this cool contest going on."
I had no idea that there was anything was going on…
… and look where I ended up... *Holy Crap* it's amazing!
I rode a jet ski for three hours and my back’s all sore 'cause I got six feet of air a few times… so you might get to see my fly one day - #Ouch!
I haven't had a break where I just hang out, in quite a while, and…
I'm at a point now where I'm trying to orchestrate some more self-care.
I've worked my butt off! What I’ve done in the last year-and-a-half is pretty rare, but it's come at a cost!
So, I'm excited to start doing more self-care and stuff, (and, I'm just being open and real and honest with you. This is part of me documenting the journey, right?)
For a little while, it was kinda rough.
Here’s what’s funny…
I didn't know that I’d come 2nd in this affiliate contest until I got a message saying, "Hey, you're coming to Lake Cascade."
I was like, "What are you talking about?"
But that's not the point of this blog 😉
Instead, I want to share with you…
WHY MARKETING IS IMPORTANT
My role in my company is the CEO, but I'm also the marketer.
In the last four weeks especially, I've been thinking about my role as a marketer...
But first of all, let me share *MY DEFINITION* of marketing with you…
Marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent of a sale.
Marketing is the act of changing beliefs for the intent of a sale.
...and so, how do you do that?
I frequently get asked, "Steve, what's your daily schedule look like?" Or "Stephen, what do you do?"
And I get it! ...and it's been interesting to look back and realize what marketing is not.
Now, as I say this, I might ruffle a few feathers, but just stick with me for a little bit, okay?
...those are ways to deliver marketing, but they’re NOT marketing itself.
… I’m NOT marketing now unless I choose to try to start breaking certain false beliefs.
I do use my podcast and blog to launch certain products, and you’ve probably seen me do that!
But put quite simply, marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent of a sale.
So it's been interesting to sit back and ask, "What activities in my company fit that description?"
I'll be honest, at the time of writing this, I haven't built a funnel in six months.
It looks like I’m doing loads of stuff because of the content that gets produced, and I'm not gonna lie; I work like crazy.
I work my butt off between 9:00 AM and 6:00 PM.
Going up to OfferMind, (or when there's a huge thing about to launch), I spend more time, but besides that, I only work 9:00 to 6:00…
But as I mentioned, my revenue is still growing in leaps and bounds..
HOW is this possible?
A: It’s simple!
MARKETING BY DEFINITION
If marketing is the act of changing beliefs with the intent of a sale, (that's my own definition), what activities fit inside that description?
Marketing is...
And so, recently, I've been focusing on campaigns like crazy, and there are multiple types of campaigns.
Usually, I ONLY deep dive into campaigns in my $23,000 program, but I'm excited to briefly walk through some campaign fundamentals with you now.
I'm not gonna go into a crazy amount of depth…
But I want you to have a little taste of what I mean.
WHAT’S A CAMPAIGN?
A campaign is NOT ads.
A campaign can include ads, but think back to the days when social media did not exist; think back to the days when marketers didn't have the internet…
How did they get attention?
A campaign is nothing more than orchestrated noise
… it's orchestrated noise with little tiny spurts of pressure here and there.
And so to create a campaign, I'll build up pressure and then, BOOM! I release the pressure...
And all these sales come on in.
The 2 types of campaigns that I want to talk about today, I call…
But most of the time people are just doing ONE style.
So what I've been doing, (and it's really nerdy, it's really geeky, but I absolutely love it), is hanging out with a whiteboard!
I know, it sounds really weird 😂
I’ve been hanging out with a whiteboard observing how people are collecting the cash.
Now, just think about this for a moment…
How many times have you been in *this* position...?
... but you don't have any sales!
And you're like, "But Steve... but ClickFunnels... but Russell... I'm doing it. I've got the funnel. I've got the offer. I've got the message."
Q: Why aren't you collecting cash?
A: The campaign is the activity that collects the cash.
A funnel is NOT a campaign. A funnel is the way to present the marketing.
A funnel just says, "Here's an offer, and here is a message."
… that's all a funnel is.
But you’ve still gotta get noise for the funnel - that's a campaign.
Think about a campaign as being the orchestrated noise for your funnel.
LET’S MAKE SOME NOISE!
Again, remember, there are two types of noise…
And what I've been doing is listing out (on my whiteboard) these HUGE lists of different campaign styles that people have successfully used to create noise around a product when they launch…
... or successfully evergreen that noise by creating perpetual noise around that product.
So, if we take Facebook ads...
Facebook ads are a great way to create evergreen sales.
That's an evergreen style way to use Facebook ads.
That's another evergreen way to get noise around a product.
Another one of my favorite ways is...
That's evergreen!
Evergreen styles are NOT usually explosive, but they're just enough cash to keep the doors open and keep money coming in.
I want to tell you guys something real quick here…
LET ME TELL YOU A SECRET…
I have an internal funnel team, and now we're just about done building an external one…
... because so many people ask me to build their funnels.
As of last week, I have two agencies, but it’s still hush-hush
(But you know about it now 😉)
People sometimes say, "Steven, you can do all this stuff because you have teams."
My answer is, "Son, I have been broke many times in my life. I’m just resourceful."
So let me give you ONE of the easiest takeaways that I can about how to get resourceful.
Q: If I know that a team of professionals can build me a kick-butt funnel for 15 grand, but I don't have 15 grand, how could I get resourceful around that?
A: Well, I'll tell you something I still do, (even though I have the 15 grand, I still do it this way)...
I go and I talk to my funnel team and I say:
"Hey funnel team, we got this really cool thing coming up. Okay, let's go build the funnel, and then I can pay you guys out in two weeks after the funnel's out and the dust kinda settles."
And they're like: "Oh that makes sense."
Q: So while they’re building the funnel, what do I do?
My role as a marketer is three things:
So as soon as I create a sales message, as soon as I create an offer, I hand it off to my funnel team...
And they build the funnel while I build launch campaigns.
So when that funnel's done, I can direct all that pressure and all that pent-up noise over to that funnel - BOOM!
I get a bunch of sales, and then I pay off the team with the first round of sales that come in from my launch campaign.
Does that make sense?
It basically means that the funnels that I've been creating for a while now, have NOT come from my business pocket.
Instead…
The money has come from my early-bird customer's pocket.
Do you see what I'm saying?
As a marketer, I pull the same five levers.. and boom, cash, cash, cash, cash, cash, cash, cash…
And it's NOT around…
So what are the mechanisms that pull the money off the table?
MY ROLE AS A MARKETER?
I’ve got three perpetual tasks on my desk:
It's funny how people in the One Funnel Away Challenge reach out and say, "Well, I built the funnel and I didn't make any money from the One Funnel Away Challenge."
I'm like, "Then you didn't build a campaign, son? Right? That's not the funnel's problem, that's your problem. Go learn what campaigns are!”
Campaigns are NOT ads.
… they're killing it.
Campaign existed before social media!
But now they call it, ‘Set up your Facebook ads campaign.’
They're killing it! Now we all think that an ad is a campaign.
*NO*
Ads can be part of a campaign, but they are NOT the campaign.
So go study ways to CREATE CAMPAIGNS!
...and my recommendation is to start watching how marketers are creating noise pressure around the products that they launch.
In this game, I've realized I can outsource…
It looks like I'm doing A LOT, but I'm honestly not…
... because those things are NOT marketing!
Cash is the by-product of marketing
And guess what marketing isn't?
FALL IN LOVE WITH YOUR WHITEBOARD 😉
You’ll need a pen to draw 2 columns:
When you look at it that way, you can step back and go, "Oh man, I need to orchestrate my launch campaign and my evergreen campaign in EVERY funnel before I start building it."
The funnel is NOT complete without the campaigns
… that's how you get the money off the table.
Don't just build the funnel and be like, "The funnel hasn't worked."
My funnels work because I generate noise to them, not because they exist on the Internet.
I sat back and I started realizing, "Crap, I’ve won a few of these trips in affiliate contest now."
I didn't even know this competition was happening, but the reason why it's worked so well is that…
I know my role, and then I outsource what is NOT my role.
*Stop trying to be a solopreneur*
Alright, you reading this right now, you're in one of two scenarios.
Either…
You're currently selling a product and you've got a slick sales funnel and traffic...
There are ads and you have content, bringing in new customers. You have upsells, downsells, and phone sales.
You've almost automated it, making money while doing everyday things.
Either that's all set up and going…
OR…
The second option is you don't have any of that, and you're still trying to make this work and tie all of these pieces together.
If you want my help, just go to capitalistcoaching.com and see where you can get started.
It took me a long time to get the skills for all this to get moving…
... there's A LOT.
And the path to move forward is different for each person.
So I created capitalistcoaching.com for you to check out where *you* need to start.
Whether you're just starting out with…
OR…
If you're like one of our BIG corporate clients who just need to add more revenue and scale your offer, go to capitalistcoaching.com.
I don't really believe in shortcuts, but I do know you can speed up the path on the journey.
Figure out the BEST place to start by going to capitalistcoaching.com now.